Claims
- 1. A crystal hydrogel material comprising covalently bonded, periodically stacked, monodispersed gel nanoparticles in a liquid medium.
- 2. The material of claim 1 where the medium is water.
- 3. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1, wherein covalent bonding contributes to mechanical, dimensional, and thermal stability of nanosphere assemblies, while periodic structure of the gel nanoparticles diffracts light to cause a range of opalescence.
- 4. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 defined further as displaying an iridescent color with good transparency and no sedimentation in the absence of an index-matching or a density-matching fluid.
- 5. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 defined further as containing at least 75% water by weight.
- 6. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 defined further as containing about 90% water by weight.
- 7. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 defined further as containing at least 97% water by weight.
- 8. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 defined further or changing in color and volume in response to environmental conditions.
- 9. The material of claim 8 where the environmental conditions are pH, temperature, electric current, ionic strength or type of solvent.
- 10. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 defined further as exhibiting different colors when different particle sizes, particle concentrations, chemical composition of the particles or reaction temperatures are used to produce the particles.
- 11. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 in which crystalline grain size changes as a function of particle size, particle concentration, particle stacking and particle chemical composition.
- 12. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 where optimum conditions in which to form said crystal hydrogel are dependent upon specific temperature and pH ranges.
- 13. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 comprising gel nanoparticles contain N-isopropylacrylamide and derivatives thereof.
- 14. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 comprising nanoparticles in a particle size range of 1-1000 nanometers in diameter.
- 15. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 comprising nanoparticles in particle size range of 1-500 nanometers diameter.
- 16. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 comprising nanoparticles in a particle size range of 20-500 nanometers in diameter.
- 17. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 comprising nanoparticles that are internally crosslinked using crosslinking compounds.
- 18. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 whose particles are bonded through functional groups on the surfaces of neighboring particles using crosslinking compounds.
- 19. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 comprising covalent linkages between nanoparticles that provide a thermal and dimensional stable crystal structure.
- 20. The crosslinking compounds of claim 17 comprising methylene-bis-acrylamide.
- 21. The crosslinking compounds of claim 18 comprising divinylsulfone related analogs, glutaric dialdehyde or related analogs, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC), adipic acid dihydrazide or other related analogs.
- 22. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 encased within a secondary polymer matrix.
- 23. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 22 where the secondary polymer matrix comprises N-isopropylacrylamide, hydroxypropylcellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, polypropylene oxide, polyethylene oxide, polyethylene oxide/polypropylene oxide copolymers, or another known hydrogel polymer.
- 24. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 or 22 whose volume and color change reversibly in response to an external stimulus.
- 25. The material of claim 24 where the stimulus is pH, electric field, ionic strength or temperature.
- 26. The crystal hydrogel material of claims 1 or 22 that, when viewed at different angles and under various lighting conditions, exhibits multiple prism-like light diffraction patterns.
- 27. The crystal hydrogel material of claim 1 or 22 whose optical properties change reversibly as either pH, temperature, ionic strength or electric current of the surrounding environment changes.
Parent Case Info
[0001] Priority is claimed from provisional patent application number Serial No. 60/336,259, filed on Nov. 15, 2001.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60336259 |
Nov 2001 |
US |